a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus and method for automatically controlling a vehicular velocity for an automotive vehicle so as to make the vehicular velocity substantially equal to a target vehicular velocity in order to follow up a preceding vehicle which is running ahead of the vehicle, maintaining at a constant inter-vehicle distance from the vehicle to the preceding vehicle.
b) Description of the Related Art
A Japanese Patent Application First Publication No. Heisei 7-47864 published on Feb. 21, 1995 exemplifies a previously proposed inter-vehicle distance controlling apparatus. In the previously proposed inter-vehicle distance controlling apparatus, a safe inter-vehicle distance from the vehicle to another vehicle traveling ahead of the vehicle (also called, a preceding vehicle) is determined with a road surface situation and a vehicular running condition taken into consideration and a vehicular engine output is controlled so that an actual inter-vehicle distance is made coincident with the safe inter-vehicle distance.